Weird Universe Archive
July 2023
July 11, 2023
What will the telephone be like when I grow up?
The day is coming when you will be able to reach any telephone in the country simply by dialing a number.
Perhaps some day in the future you may just speak the number into the transmitter and get your party automatically.
Perhaps some day in the future you may just speak the number into the transmitter and get your party automatically.
The introduction of universal direct dialing was a pretty safe guess in 1953, since direct dialing had, by then, already been introduced in some places.
It's more impressive that the ad writers also successfully predicted the introduction of voice recognition technology.
Life - May 18, 1953
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 11, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Technology, Telephones, 1950s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows
Auto Breathalyzer Disguise
Might a felon be embarrassed to be seen blowing into his automobile ignition interlock Breathalyzer? Yes! Then what you need is this camouflage unit!The patent is here.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 11, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Disguises, Impersonations, Mimics and Forgeries, Inventions, Police and Other Law Enforcement, Alcohol, Cars
July 10, 2023
Journal of the Identical Lunch
Journal of the Identical Lunch, published in 1971, records the experiences of artist Alison Knowles and her friends all eating an identical lunch — "a tunafish sandwich on wheat toast with lettuce and butter, no mayo and a large glass of buttermilk or a cup of soup" — though not all at the same time. Knowles herself reportedly ate this identical lunch every day at a New York diner.Copies of the book are now quite rare, so if you want one (perhaps as an investment? The price will surely only go up) it'll cost you at least $200, and perhaps as much as $500.
More info: artnet.com, MoMA.org
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 10, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Art, Food, Books, 1970s
The Scatalogic Rites of All Nations
Read it here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jul 10, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Hygiene, Excrement, Regionalism, Anthropology, Nineteenth Century
July 9, 2023
Freak auto accident
More info: Motorsport Memorial
Florida Today - May 31, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 09, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Death, 1970s, Cars
House of Tomorrow: 1969
Watch the video below the screenshot.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 09, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Architecture, Domestic, Hobbies and DIY, 1960s, Yesterday’s Tomorrows
July 8, 2023
Wife Gets Smart, Makes Husband Happy
In 1941, Safeway began including comic strips in their newspaper ads. The comics continued throughout World War II until 1947.Nat Gertler collected these comic-strip ads together in a book titled Wife Gets Smart, Makes Husband Happy. It's a collection WUvies might enjoy since it offers a bizarro window onto the concerns of mid-20th century American families.
One theme in particular emerges repeatedly: wives desperately trying to manage the moods of their husbands (the husbands being either cranky, obnoxious, clueless, or lethargic). Somehow the wives always manage to save the marriage by shopping at Safeway.
More info: AboutComics.com, Amazon
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jul 08, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Advertising, Comics, Books, 1940s
Most Inscrutable Liner Notes Ever
The Wikipedia page for the album.
I have taken the liberty of breaking the text into random paragraphs, to ease your perusal.
Who was the author, Barry Titus? We find record of him under his wife's Wikipedia page.
WAIT QUICKLY by Barry J. Titus after Jim Hall and Bill Evans
Rimmed iron wheels chew candy between tracks window smithers Xmas tree window silver money fleeing present unone given coca cola smiling blank wall perspires omens heads nodding close gaped lips seen stick stuck taxi sign disrobes May 15th, 1959. hanging about her knees mail bundle wheeled cripple clutches Read Wall Street clock white sun monocle IIV or VII long blink see eyes time? Apparitional liquid hesitates a foot, a universe below the white paint-trussed varicose cieling. Liquid slips, drops, unoutlineable shape, presenting absence, glides unreal, an excuse for splattering focus, a school of Dolphins or a dark Grecian head.
Virtuoso: practice makes perfect. Two sharps. Ice crystal diamond egg frog oan wrkwrk-wrxwrx. Donned rubber belts nose mouth. Nub knuckled fingers bounce overfilled heat tear salt balling. Again. Two sharps. Ice crystal, diamonkey, egg, nail rubonk, snill. Huhhh. Snill. rubru, nail, frog, diamond many windows flash ice. Air out. Curtain fingers, cieling lines, French door bars gripped unstill sun broiling play, fat ended keys with black spines.
"How could the Augsburg festival have been in Vienna, hah! Loewy?" Paint corner her jagged lip fingertips petrified red cream smile flicked starving grotto. "I mean is she a satirist or," her tendon muscle stomach dieted twist the flat skirt front. "I think she needs a milk man, Loewy." The shambled, bent, stripped fingers forked each others angles. His imagination chained in Veronica's orange ochre wallpaper, blankets. A quicksilver limb paints the swamptoon. "Yes, I do!" shook, he shivered, remembering, room loose daggers broke ice bergs about them. Peanut butter note, Fang, Fang. Ice Fang back wriggled sorcerer hand hung dead skin frog fangs back Mama into Eassie leap shrunk from the door hid sharpened tusk hallway awwwrice fang bump jump.
"Six fifteen," growled grate hunched on the sofa. "You're presence is expiring, I mean, inspiring." Blue, yellow tinged, Mars capillaried, eye, blue crystal, whites slash, "I know what I want! Why is it such a struggle for you? I feel revolutions." Lie quicksilver idealisation limb delusion chrome rationalisation dance dragged curtained bog cracked ice amazon child's burning nerves. Always left whiskers, uneven fingernails, premature orgasms hairy legs, long nose pranthula.
Go play. Eat chocolate cake, peanut butter, pickles, but clean your room and wash your elbows. Ceiling lines, piano leg shadows, French door bars, eleven to four thirty. "Ma!" shook the still fingers. Rectangled silence coagulated, scraped waiting, dangling. Daddyeeee drove him smack clamored up back fallen stairs into the quilt where a silk wrapped, dark quaked moon bled tears. Run vanity open smear black commaed cheek. "Coups d'etat!" forehead burst powder, lipstick ribboned run eye shadow sink spit spigot greyened clear washed black rubbed lather pushed red pressed tan smeared blue smudged grey circled one eye deathlaughcue hiccupping criggle vermouth spread on the table top gash crystal core neck glass cupped fingers polished green.
A silver ghost hears. Life illuminates a paper screen. Eyes dance truth's instrument. Sieve, sickle and sloat, red grimes grey molds parted skins furrowed tissue lives skeletal screams. Long brown stone blunt nose raised, "Naked day?" puffed sound slices blush. Tongue stuck inside closed teeth. Torso immobile inflame face clacks ticket counter leaned hat veiled hat pulled hat swivel, "I don't know what to say." Jagged leaning brown limbed face. His eyes crumbled smiles smoke dust wound warm bricks.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 08, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Literature, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, Surrealism, 1960s
July 7, 2023
Carmagheddon
The ultimate low-rider. The video below is in Italian, but shows it being driven. It definitely can't go over any speed bumps.More info: Core77
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 07, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Cars
Futurist Cuisine
The Italian Futurist movement, like the Surrealists, was fond of taking the piss out of traditional things. In 1930, they decided to overturn normal cooking and eating, publishing a MANIFESTO OF FUTURIST COOKING.Read about it at THE NEW YORKER.
And here.
And here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jul 07, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Food, Cookbooks, Surrealism, 1930s, Europe
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction books such as Elephants on Acid. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Chuck Shepherd Chuck is the purveyor of News of the Weird, the syndicated column which for decades has set the gold-standard for reporting on oddities and the bizarre. Our banner was drawn by the legendary underground cartoonist Rick Altergott. Contact Us |
